Stereotyping in perception of attractiveness, age, and gender in schematic faces

Thirty-one subjects classified 16 schematic faces on 6 subject variables. Faces judged as pleasant-looking received higher positive trait evaluations than those judged as unpleasant (effect size d = 0.91 or 1.47), strongly confirming the dictum that “what is beautiful is good”. Also, more faces perceived as young were judged to be pleasant than unpleasant (d= 0.67) and more faces perceived as old were judged to be unpleasant than pleasant (d = 0.64), replicating previous reports of a negative relationship between age and attractiveness. However, the latter effect disappeared when women judged faces perceived to be female. It is suggested that future research should replicate this interaction, and investigate the effect of using various terms to characterize attractiveness.